Tourism takes priority over voting in Pahalgam

Pahalgam, May 25: In the picturesque town of Pahalgam, many locals opted to prioritise their livelihoods over voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary election on Saturday, choosing instead to attend to the influx of tourists. The two polling booths in Pahalgam saw a very thin turnout.
Some voters outside the polling booths indicated that the majority of their neighbours and fellow residents were busy attending to tourists.
One voter, Mohammad Yaqoob Lone, said, “May usually remains a good tourism month and, for the past three years, there has been a huge rush of tourists here. People who are associated with this sector cannot afford to waste a single day, especially considering the dry days of many previous years.”
I think most of the residents in Pahalgam are busy attending to the tourists and are skipping the vote, he added.
Another local, Bilal Ahmad Lone, said that residents in the area associated with tourism earn nearly Rs 4,000 a day on average and prefer to invest all their time in attending to as many tourists as possible.
“In Pahalgam, we have a limited season for tourism. Given the past difficult events, the locals here are more focused on their livelihood than on elections,” he said. (KNO)